Recently there has been some mention of sore hips, knees, aging joints etc.  and what follows is nothing more than my opinion based on my own experiences.

I had a massive medial meniscus cartilage tear at age 21 from simply stepping up onto a table. No scope procedures were being done yet, so they opened it up and removed what they felt was needed. Mistake #1   Hospitalized for 5 days and walked with a noticeable limp for the next 30 years. Mistake #2

In those days you typically had to be 70 plus years old to have a replacement because the life of the mechanical joint was either short or unknown.  They always worried about how many “revisions” could be done within the patient’s lifespan.

That has all changed.  I had the knee with previously torn cartilage replaced at age 52, mostly because the Doc pointed out the ongoing damage occurring to both hips from the fouled up gait I had developed over 3 decades.  Now they can replace the sacrificial polyethylene puck within the new joint and complete revisions can be done several times, so they are willing to do them at much younger ages.  Now at 60 my hips no longer bother me unless I have really abused them.

Most of us are inclined to wait as long as we can and keep using the original equipment until utter failure occurs.  I believe that is a mistake because of the collateral damage to other joints involved in walking.  I also had two joints replaced in my feet because I was too stubborn to have a lesser preventative surgery at an earlier date. Mistake #3

Steroid injections twice per year 2 weeks out from canoe trips  bought me some time for several years and Hyaluronic Acid injections work well for some people, but all are just stop-gap measures.

As to the use of exercise to help the joint pain, it absolutely does help because if the attending muscles are strong the joint is more stable and less likely to “give out” unexpectedly.  The joint replacement physicians will always recommend months of exercise to build the muscles up prior to surgery to shorten rehab.  The majority of rehab is nothing more than forcing flexibility back in the joint AHEAD of the scar tissue that WILL develop. It is always unpleasant, more so if you do not get right after it.

Standard disclaimer here.  My opinions are for entertainment purposes only and not to be construed as medical advice.

Consult your own physician, but do it sooner rather than later.

MossBack

Thanks for the good info Mossback.  I stay in relatively good shape bc of the job I do.  Over the winter I don't work nearly as much and get out of shape very easily.  It's then very painful to build the muscles back up and my goal now is to never let myself go more than 2 days without some kind of workout.  A week off and doing nothing and I am toast.

Jimbo wrote on Jul 8^th, 2017 at 10:15am:

JIM I AM OVER 70 AND YOU’RE PLANNING A TRIP WITH ME!! There ant no young strong back here.

Hey MB, I have to second your opinion and also add that that is mostly because of my own experience.  I had very serious congenital hip problems that began manifesting in earnest when I was a mere pup (35.)  From that time until I was 47 things got so bad that I could barely get my socks on by myself.  Needless to say there was no canoeing or tripping, something I had done and loved from the time I was 9 years old.  The added shame of it was that my wife had also been very much into canoeing and backcountry tripping and in our first 20 years together we never even talked about it much less shared the experience.  When I was 55 I had my second hip replaced.  Three months later my wife and I were out hiking in Algonquin Park and realized we could paddled together.  We spent the next 4 years regaining our chops by renting a small ranger cabin in Algonquin, getting our equipment together and going on a few 4 and 5 day trips from the cabin.  The rest, as they say, is history.  We'll be heading out August 1st for our 7th, month long jaunt in the remote Ontario Northwest.  I feel younger, fitter and happier now at 66 than ever I did when I was 40.  Degrading joints not only affect and limit us physically, they also have a huge emotional impact.  Speaking for myself, I was becoming increasingly irritable and bitter without even realizing it.  I have not been a big fan of Western medicine but when it comes to joint replacement surgery it can perform miracles.  I am told that one of these years, maybe sooner or later, I will have to have my aortal valve replaced (again, a congenital malformation.)  Forty years ago that would have been a 50-50 proposition.  Now ... well it's still open heart surgery but the success rate is phenomenal.  I feel blessed to live at a time when this is true.  My advice to anyone over 50 - go get your hips replaced. Whether you need it or not, you'll feel like a million bucks ... just kidding!!

The intent of my original posting was to encourage those with “Arthur” problems to not make the same mistakes  I did.  Postponing the inevitable to the point of causing more damage to other joints.

Joint replacement surgery, or any surgery for that matter, is a very personal decision and I do not intend to mettle in other’s affairs.  Only to relate what I believe my own mistakes were.

Looking forward to a yearly canoe trip or two is what keeps me walking stairs, being conscious of my weight and what I eat, and a myriad of other bad habits I would rather be enjoying.

When I cross paths in the woods with someone 10 or 20 years older than I am, still there and doing it in style, I am in awe and inspired.  Last year, on the upper end of Kawnipi I found a 3 generation family walking the portage.  The elder was 86 and his stride would make anyone proud.  I hope to be him someday.

Jimbo,  you mentioned conflicting opinions from your Dr.’s.  That is all too common.  They are human and often driven by different desires.  Some to heal and help and some by cash flow. They are capable of encouraging unreasonable caution with their handiwork so their outcome statistics look better, even if it is at the cost of lifestyle to the patient.

I decided some time ago that many Dr.’s form an opinion of the patient’s ailment within the first 30 seconds of discussion and never hear anything else you say beyond that point.  Before I had my knee replaced I got two opinions, just like most people do.  But to short circuit the 30 second opinion habit, I took visual aids.  A single page with 12 smaller photos of things I explained to the Dr.’s I had to be able to do after the replacement.  A firewood pile, stiff clutches in vintage vehicles and farm equipment (left leg), my knees folded up and legs crossed in the stern of a canoe, a steep rock garden portage’ trail with a heavy pack, and so on.  One Dr. said no to 4 or 5 of the photos.  The other asked if I did any of those 12 things as my daily occupation for 8 hours per day. When I replied “no” he said I should be able to enjoy all those activities for the rest of my life. 

He got the job. 

My only lifelong restriction was not to use a treadmill, stairclimber or any other daily exercise machine that loads and unloads the joint.  He recommends an elliptical machine.  Hips may be different?

All of us who are a bit long in the tooth will hit that wall at some point in the not too distant future.  Ceasing to do what we love and need before we simply can’t do it anymore seems akin to giving up and sitting around waiting for the grim reaper to have his way with us without a fight.

Standard apologies if I ricocheted off into the weeds to far on this one.

Regards,

MossBack